After a stellar rookie campaign, Raiders TE Brock Bowers was selected around the late second round in fantasy football drafts for 2025. He was the consensus TE1 off the board and expectations were that he would build off that solid first year in the NFL.

Unfortunately, injuries derailed what could have been another solid performance and left Bowers as a relative bust for managers. Now healthy, Bowers enters Year 3 in the league and the sentiment is that he'll bounce back for a number of reasons.

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Matt Harmon and Justin Boone discuss those reasons and whether or not Bowers is worth a first-round pick in your fantasy draft this summer on the latest episode of the Yahoo Fantasy Forecast.

Last season, the Raiders were projected to be one of the worst teams in the NFL and Bowers and then-rookie RB Ashton Jeanty were top-20 picks in fantasy despite that. Harmon starts the segment by stating that we're running it back with both players being high picks in fantasy while Las Vegas is expected to be bad again in 2026.

Boone is comfortable with Bowers being taken that high even though the Raiders could be poor on offense again. While Bowers is the TE1 and usually there isn't much else to say with such a highly-projected player, but Boone thinks the star can be a true difference-maker/league-winner for managers.

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For Half-PPR formats, Boone views Bowers as a solid second-round pick. But for Full-PPR, the analyst has Bowers even higher, arguing that he doesn't mind taking the tight end at the end of the first round and into the early second round of drafts.

This has to do with the Raiders' lack of addressing the receiver position this offseason. Las Vegas didn't go out and get anybody to help in the passing game (unless you count Jalen Nailor). So Boone says Bowers will still be the "de facto No. 1 receiver" for this offense, that now has Klint Kubiak calling the shots.

As a rookie in 2024, Bowers was the TE1 overall in fantasy scoring with 206.7 in Half-PPR formats. He finished with 112 receptions for 1,194 and five touchdowns in 17 games. Last season, Bowers still set a career high with seven scores but only played in 12 games, finishing with 64 catches for 680 yards.